About the book

Cat has always been in control of her life. Happily married to Dom, but flying high as a political lobbyist, she dismisses his desire to start a family … until she herself is ready.

But what if it is then too late?

Complex and selfish, intelligent and open, if she is to succeed in having that elusive child, Cat must battle through gruelling fertility treatment and the emotional strain it places on her marriage. By her side, Dom, easygoing and ever the optimist, finds that he too risks being run ragged by their journey.

Both are forced to come to terms with their longing for a baby against the blitz on a relationship tested like never before.

Bittersweet, at times funny, and always emotionally raw, this is by far the most moving and honest novel you’ll ever read about IVF and its impact on a marriage.

My Review

Moondance is mainly set in London and surrounds the lives of Cat and Dom, a highly successful couple who are career driven and seeing fabulous results. They are the ultimate power-couple; gorgeous, successful and have everything they have wanted….until the ability to conceive eludes them.

Cat and Dom end up going down the route of IVF which challenges them in ways they never realised was possible and demonstrates how emotionally draining going through the process can be. Right from the start it seems to put pressure on their marriage as Cat is bitter than she is having to go through all the gruelling injections and treatment versus, what she sees, is the easy ride that Dom is getting.

Moondance is very emotionally raw, showing the IVF journey warts and all. You can tell that Chandler is drawing on personal experience for this narrative as the emotional rollercoaster is all too real. Alongside the emotional side is also the insight as to the treatment that happens when a couple embark on the IVF journey, it is not as simple and injecting sperm into an egg and then implanting that into the womb – there is so much more preparation for the woman’s body that is needed before this point. I’d like to thank Chandler in educating me in the IVF process and I feel exceptionally fortunate to have conceived naturally.

Alongside the IVF, we also get an insight into today’s working environment whereby Cat is almost scheduling her child into her career and expected that it would just happen to plan – like everything else in her life has. Cat is ruthless in a man’s world (this is clear from the circumstances in which Cat and Dom met!) and having a child, she feels is a gamble to her career and power. Dom doesn’t experience the same challenges so was broaching the subject of children earlier than Cat was ready.

At times Moondance is difficult to read as you almost feel like you are encroaching on someone elses conversation such is the honesty of the narrative through the numerous cycles of IVF and how each failure takes it toll on them both, the guilt they each feel and the bitterness against one another. However it’s not all lows, there are highs in the book as well and also humour thrown in. I liked Cat’s dry sense of humour which compliments the subject of the book and made the characters more lifelike.

Moondance is a wonderful read, truly written from the heart and it must have also been an emotional journey for Chandler as you don’t write a book like this without being 100% emotionally invested in the characters and the subject matter.

Thank you to Stephanie at Blackbird Digital books for my copy of Moondance and inviting me onto the blog tour.

About Diane Chandler

Diane Chandler worked first as a political lobbyist in Brussels, and then at the European Commission for several years, where she managed overseas aid programmes in Ukraine just after the fall of communism. Ukraine soon worked its way into her heart, and she travelled there extensively. Back in London, when Diane married and her daughter was born, she was able to pursue her passion for writing in those few hours she could snatch. Ukraine became the subject for her first novel The Road To Donetsk, which won The People’s Book Prize for Fiction 2016. Her second novel, Moondance, about a high-flying career woman battling with gruelling fertility treatment, was informed by her personal experience of the emotional and physical impact of IVF. She is currently working on her third novel.